Police Quest Creator Announces Precinct

Police Quest creator Jim Walls revealed today that he's working on a new police adventure game. Precinct is currently in development for PC and Mac but Walls needs your help to finish the game.

The Police Quest series, developed and published by Sierra, began in the mid-1980's. Each game put players in the role of a police officer solving a series of crimes. It was notable for its realism and adhere to actual police procedures. Failing to follow these procedures could result in penalties or - in some cases - death. When the adventure game series went dormant in the late nineties, Sierra slowly morphed the Police Quest series into a first-person shooter franchise called SWAT.

Precinct sounds like a return to Police Quest's adventure roots. Players will take on the role of police officer Maxwell Jones in the town of Fraser Canyon, California. They'll start as a rookie and then work their way up the ladder by solving crimes. There will be a bit of action mixed in as well, though.

"Playing in the first person perspective, Precinct's real-time 3D environments and gameplay deliver significant realism to the classic police adventure style Jim is famous for creating," reads the Precinct Kickstarter page. "Along with staple elements such as adventure and puzzles, players also encounter intense fast action gameplay sequences that include shootouts, high speed car chases, investigations, foot pursuits, hand-to-hand combat, and more."

Walls and his team are seeking $500,000 to build the game. They've outlined some stretch goals in case they surpass that goal. They'll add "hours of additional content" as well as a "higher level of detail and beauty" if they hit $600,000. If they get another hundred grand, they'll fill out the story with more characters and locations and also develop a Linux version. Their $800,000 stretch goal includes more gameplay content as well as iOS, Android, Xbox Live Arcade, and PSN ports. They'll also release subtitled versions of the game with French, Italian, German and Spanish.

It's been 20 years since the last proper Police Quest adventure game so I'm not sure how big of a fan community still exists to push this Kickstarter project. Still, inXile managed to raise millions of dollars for a sequel to a 1988 game so maybe there's hope for Precinct.